


A Legacy Let Go

by Mischel



Series: Merlin Memory Month 2019 [5]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), M/M, Merlin Needs a Hug (Merlin), Merthur - Freeform, Protective Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 11:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18849964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mischel/pseuds/Mischel
Summary: Merlin gets threatened by a group of new knights who don't like the fact that he and Arthur are together. Gwaine, Lancelot, Leon, Percival and Elyan find him and bring him back to the king, who's quick to assure him that their future is bright.(Written for the Merlin Memory Month 2019.)





	A Legacy Let Go

**Author's Note:**

> As promised, this fanfic is longer :) Enjoy!
> 
> PROMPT DAY 5  
> Path 1 - Bruised and battered  
> Path 2 - Emotion/Mood/Aesthetic: Sassy  
> Path 3 - A legacy kept / A legacy let go
> 
> \- I used prompts "bruised" and "a legacy let go"

It was late afternoon in Camelot, and Merlin was still in the armoury, where he had been polishing all the pieces of Arthur's armour for at least an hour already. He would have used his magic, which was something he usually did for this chore, but he'd promised Arthur he would use his gift sparingly, for his own safety. Yes, Uther was dead now, but that didn't change the law. Magic was still illegal and under the penalty of death.

And Merlin knew Arthur didn't want anyone to catch Merlin red-handed, so Merlin had promised to use his magic only if it was absolutely necessary. And that included even the most frustrating chores, which polishing Arthur's armour always was.

The last thing Merlin wanted was to lie to Arthur that evening. They had planned a dinner in Arthur's chambers by the fire. It wasn't often that Arthur had the evening for himself, spared of all his responsibilities, and so both he and Merlin wanted to make the most of it and spend the evening together.

Merlin had already informed Gaius that it was unlikely he'd return to sleep in his own bed that night. Gaius had answered with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, which made Merlin smile now as he was polishing Arthur's breastplate.

Merlin sighed as he put the last piece of Arthur's armour - now polished - away and he admired his work with his hands on his hips. Merlin had hoped that his chores would come less often now that he and Arthur were together, but he was wrong. He was still Arthur's manservant after all, and they didn't want anyone besides Gwen to know about their relationship. But this time Merlin didn't mind working, as long as he and Arthur could spend that evening together as promised.

The door to the armoury opened and three knights walked in. As Merlin glanced at them, he immediately recognised them - they had been training with Arthur for the past few months and had only been knighted two days before. They were the newest knights of Camelot.

"Hey, Merlin," one of them addressed him.

Merlin smiled at them. "Hi." It wasn't unusual. Merlin followed Arthur everywhere, which meant that he had been present at most of the training sessions. All the knights knew who he was at this point, and it had never been hard for Merlin to make friends.

"Polishing the king's armour, I see," the same knight pointed at Merlin's proud work.

Merlin nodded. "Yeah, Arthur wanted it to be  _shining_ for tomorrow's training session."

"That's not a proper way to address the king, Merlin," the knight told him rather harshly. Merlin kept his smile but frowned in confusion. Yes, calling the king by his first name was nowhere near proper, but no other knights ever cared. They knew that he and Arthur were friends and that Arthur didn't mind, and that he, in fact, welcomed it.

"Tell me, Merlin," the knight stepped closer to him. At that moment, Merlin's smile disappeared and his friendliness was replaced by hesitant fear. The knight glanced at his two companions with a smirk, before looking back at Merlin. He folded his arms on his chest and with a nod and his eyes pointed between Merlin's legs. "Do you ever  _polish_  something  _else_  that belongs to the king?"

Merlin's cheeks reddened and he took a step back. Perhaps they were only joking, Merlin tried to calm himself down. He didn't know them that well yet, so maybe this was their way of joking, which, yeah, Merlin didn't like or appreciate, but it wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

He laughed nervously. "Yeah," he pointed behind the armour on the bench. "Arthur's sword, obviously. I'm his manservant."

All the knights stepped closer to him, blocking his way to the door and making him walk closer towards the corner of the armoury. "Is that how you call it?" The knight snorted together with his two friends. "A  _sword?"_

"Well, it is a sword," Merlin swallowed.

"You know what I mean,  _Mer_ lin."

This was precisely the moment that Merlin would usually choose to use magic. He'd fake a cough or look down so that they wouldn't be able to see his eyes, and then he'd make a shield fall down to distract them while escaping the room. But it was a risk, and he'd promised Arthur that he wouldn't use magic unless it was absolutely necessary.

He looked at the knights and at their determined eyes. Without his magic, he suddenly felt so small compared to them. But they wouldn't hurt him, would they? They couldn't, unless they wanted to fight Arthur, who would absolutely fight for him.

They wouldn't hurt him.

"You're not fit for the position of the king's servant," the second knight said. "He only keeps you around because you provide him with physical pleasure."

"Distasteful."

"You can't mean anything to him, he's a  _king._ "

They approached him and surrounded him in the corner of the room. One of them grabbed his arms and held tightly until it started to hurt. Merlin didn't move as the knight stared into his face.

"You'll address the king properly from now on, do you understand?"

"You will no longer distract him from his duties. He needs to take care of the kingdom and produce an heir. That's how it always was and how it always should be."

"Don't ever think that you two are equal. You're not."

Merlin's eyes filled with tears as the knight tightened his grip on him. It hurt, and it would definitely leave a bruise that Merlin would remember. He'd never had to deal with anything like this, he was usually liked among the knights.

Thankfully, the door to the armoury opened once more and Sir Leon, Sir Elyan, Percival with Gwaine and Lancelot all entered the room together, laughing.

Gwaine was in the middle of some story, "and then I told him, 'Not on my watch, mate!' and you know what he repl-"

He immediately stopped when they all noticed what was going on. Their smiles were replaced by angered frowns.

"What's going on here?" Sir Leon asked with a strong and authoritative voice, while Gwaine even unsheathed his sword.

The knights let go of Merlin and smiled innocently. "Nothing is going on, we're just teaching Merlin here a lesson."

"Merlin doesn't need to be taught anything," Lancelot frowned at them. "And definitely nothing from  _you_ , Sir Toren."

"Of course," the knights bowed to Sir Leon and disappeared out of the door. Percival and Elyan stared at them harshly as they walked by, and Gwaine with Lancelot immediately rushed over to Merlin's side.

"What happened?"

"Are you alright?"

"Did they hurt you?"

Merlin winced as they touched his arm in support. "A little bit," he admitted. They let go of him carefully, all looking sorry. Their worried voices and faces all reminded Merlin that he did have friends and that those three knights were only three in more than a hundred. He'd be fine.

Probably.

"They had no right to do this to you," Gwaine gritted through his teeth, his hand touching his sheathed sword restlessly. Merlin noticed it.

"No, Gwaine, it's fine." Merlin smiled at him, not very sure of whether he was right or not. "They're new knights, they'll learn."

"They should," Leon said. "And they should know that there is no honour in hurting the innocent."

"We'll take you to Arthur," Lancelot decided. "Do you need-"

"No, I can walk," Merlin reassured him with a smile. "Do we need to bother him with this?" He asked nervously. He didn't want Arthur to worry, especially not when they were supposed to spend the evening together. It was supposed to be perfect, not spent worrying about Merlin's safety, he wanted their date to be problem-free.

"We must," Leon decided. "It's our duty."

With that, they all left the armoury and led Merlin all the way to the courtyard, up the stairs and into Arthur's chambers. They knocked on the door and waited until Arthur opened. Merlin hoped that Arthur wouldn't think it was Merlin alone waiting behind the door and wouldn't embarrass himself, but he never knocked, so it should be fine and the knights hopefully wouldn't find out about their relationship.

The door opened and Arthur's smile faded as soon as he saw Merlin and the others.

"What's the matter?" he asked, looking at Merlin up and down, probably holding himself back and not taking Merlin's hand, which he already would have done, had Merlin been there alone.

"We found Sir Bally, Sir Pein and Sir Wigh harassing Merlin in the armoury, sire," Leon informed his king.

"They bruised his arms!" Gwaine said, his tone clearly indicating that he was very upset about it. Merlin was grateful for his loyalty and friendship.

"What?" Arthur frowned in worry and this time didn't hesitate to take Merlin's hand and lead him inside. "Are you okay?"

Merlin nodded. "I am now." He turned to the knights and smiled in gratitude. "Thanks."

"I think you should debase them," Gwaine told Arthur. "They don't deserve the title, Arthur."

"Thank you all," Arthur nodded at them. "I'll give it a thought."

"You'll give it a thought?" Gwaine asked incredulously. "Just do it! They can't hurt innocent people if they're knights, they-"

"Gwaine," Arthur looked at him sternly. "I'll think about it. Thank you for informing me."

Gwaine frowned, but eventually, he left with the other knights, and the door closed behind them. As soon as Merlin and Arthur were alone, Arthur took his hand and squeezed it in worry.

"What did they say? Why did they want to hurt you? Are you sure you're okay?"

Merlin laughed softly. "Wow, so much attention, all of a sudden."

"Merlin, this is serious." Arthur didn't smile. "I can't have knights that I don't trust. What did they say to you?"

Merlin sighed and slowly led Arthur over to his bed. They both sat down on it, still holding hands, and only then Merlin realized how much the situation had shaken him and how he was using humour only to mask his true feelings. He welled up and shrugged.

"They, um, they said that I didn't deserve you and that I was distracting you from your duties as a king. They implied that we were . . .  _sleeping_ together."

Arthur blinked at him in disbelief, but before he could say something, Merlin continued.

"They said that we weren't equal and that I should address you properly because you were a king and you shouldn't care about me."

Arthur squeezed his hand and entwined their fingers to comfort Merlin. Merlin appreciated that.

"Tell me you don't believe that."

Merlin smiled at him briefly. "You wouldn't go into all this trouble, finishing your paperwork ahead of time in order to spend one evening with me, if you didn't care about me."

Arthur lowered his head as he hid his fond smile and then he nodded, looking into Merlin's eyes. "That's right," he said and brushed Merlin's tears away. "I care about you way more than I should, Merlin. I'm glad you know that."

Merlin leaned in to kiss him without any warning, seeking comfort. Arthur returned the kiss and as Merlin pulled away, he whispered, "I love you."

It took a few seconds for Arthur to respond to that, but when he did, it was with another kiss, more desperate this time. "I love you, too, Merlin."

"Glad we've established that, then."

Arthur laughed softly against Merlin's mouth, and pulled away, capturing his cheek with his palm. "I want to make Camelot safe for you."

Merlin sighed. "That will be very hard."

"But not impossible." Arthur brushed his thumb up and down Merlin's cheekbone and then put his dark hair behind his ear. "I don't want to continue my father's legacy of fear. I want everyone in Camelot to feel safe, and I mean  _everyone."_

Merlin was enveloped in such a deep feeling of love and appreciation that he didn't think he could take it. "Do you mean that?" He asked, still incredulous.

"I mean it, Merlin," Arthur confirmed. "And I'll need your help. We'll work together to rewrite the law in order for the kingdom to be safe for everyone. How do you like the sound of that?"

"I'd love that."

They smiled at each other and kissed again before Arthur stood up and held out his hand for Merlin. Merlin took it.

"Now, the dinner is already prepared, and I believe I have a promise to keep."

Merlin grinned at him and stood up from the bed. Arthur led him to the table and they both sat down, officially starting their well deserved evening of love and meaningless conversations that would make them laugh and dance and completely forget about Merlin's misfortune of meeting the knights in the armoury.

But that was okay. Because together, they could beat anything.

**Author's Note:**

> I've written two fanfics for the next prompt day (this Sunday), so you'll be getting over 3k words. But I've got a huge exam on Monday that will determine whether my first year of university was worth it and whether I should even stay for the second year, so I should be probably studying instead of posting these fics, but I'll post them, don't worry. Just wish me luck... and thanks for reading! :)


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